It got me talking with some old timer locals about plants called sage, but aren't salvias, like the native CA artemesias, the omnipresent Perovskia and my favorite, Jerusalem Sage (Phlomis fruticosa).

Any other favorites that you grow or see around that are sages, but not salvias?

Another type I forgot about are the pitcher sages - this one is Lepechinia fragrans ‘El Tigre’.

I have a couple young Perovskias ('Blue Spire' & 'Little Spire'), and Artemisia californica (California sagebrush). I've tried Phlomis russeliana (it was possibly fruticosa), but the gophers got it before it bloomed. :(

I bought a plant that was (wrongly) labeled merely "curly-leaf sage", or somesuch. Turns out it's Teucrium x lucidrys (germander).

My mom has a young L. frutescens, so I hope it looks like the one in your pic some day! She also has a Lepechinia hastata, and the leaves have the most glorious scent! That's next on my "gimme" list. :D

Brenda

All Salvias are sages but every Sage is not a Salvia.

I have Lepechinia hastata. I first saw it flowering in a nursery hoophouse a few years agao. I thought at first it was a salvia. It has deep burgundy flowers and seems to be hardy here in the PNW. It produces many seeds.

SG

Though they are called collectively cockspur flowers, many Plectranthus have new world Salvia habits including behrii, fruticosus, ciliatus, zuluensis, ecklonii, haidensis, hilliardiae (including Mona Lisa), and saccatus. The flowers are upside down, with the hood on the bottom, like other members of the basil subfamily (including Pycnostachys and Orthosiphon).

Orthosiphon labiatus is often called pink sage in South Africa.